Empire Petroleum Corp. has posted a $16.2 million net loss for 2024, affected by operational challenges on the initial production optimization associated with enhanced oil recovery (EOR) efforts in the Starbuck drilling program in North Dakota. I had recorded a net loss of $12.5 million for 2023. Empire said in a media release that its total product revenue in 2024 reached $44 million, $4 million above 2023. The Starbuck drilling program helped the company increase oil sales volumes. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) was $0.7 million for 2024, compared to negative $2.4 million in EBITDA for 2023. “As an emerging, agile company, Empire Petroleum has a unique ability to pivot quickly as we receive new data and insights. This flexibility is a tremendous advantage in the dynamic energy sector, allowing us to efficiently allocate capital and resources to the most promising opportunities where they will have the greatest impact”, chair Phil Mulacek said. Empire said that during the fourth quarter of 2024, it obtained authorization from the North Dakota Industrial Commission (NDIC) to transform two additional oil wells into injectors, further progressing its enhanced oil recovery strategy. The previous conversion of three wells resulted in a reduction of its short-term output but has improved prospects for long-term production growth, according to the company. In February 2025, Empire also said it had secured NDIC approval for five new drilling permits for horizontal wells. To contact the author, email [email protected] WHAT DO YOU THINK? Generated by readers, the comments included herein do not reflect the views and opinions of Rigzone. All comments are subject to editorial review. Off-topic, inappropriate or insulting comments will be removed. MORE FROM THIS AUTHOR

Dive Brief: Republicans on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee have called on eight environmental organizations that received grants from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to submit documents, communications and other internal records related to the funding they received. The probe, announced Thursday, is spearheaded by Committee Chair James Comer and seeks to investigate the funding disbursed to recipients under the Biden administration’s EPA, including grants from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. The $27 billion fund was established as part of the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, the former president’s landmark climate law. Comer said in his March 27 letters that the committee is “examining potential entanglements or conflicts of interests” between the environmental nonprofits and the Biden administration’s EPA. All eight groups received grants collectively worth $20 billion from the GGRF — a financial commitment Republicans have dubbed an “unprecedented arrangement.” Dive Insight: Comer sent letters to Climate United, Coalition for Green Capital, Power Forward Communities, Opportunity Finance Network, Inclusiv, Justice Climate Fund, Appalachian Community Capital and Native CDFI Network on Thursday. The letters requested that all eight groups provide information on employees, salaries and communication that took place between them and the former EPA administration related to GGRF grants by April 10. Earlier this month, the EPA — under Trump-nominated Lee Zeldin — froze access to the $20 billion grants committed through the GGRF, leaving recipients in a precarious financial situation. Climate United Fund, a grantee and one of the eight organizations that received a letter from Comer Thursday, said at the time the abrupt halt on funding impacted its ability to make payroll for employees and disburse funding to its contracted borrowers. In his March 3 letter to the EPA’s Acting Inspector General Nicole Murley, Zeldin said the structure of the IRA-backed fund was fraudulent and made

Dive Brief: Pairing natural gas generation with carbon capture could provide large data centers with another low-carbon option for reliable, off-grid electrical generation, according to a white paper from carbon management firm Carbon Direct. Integrating carbon capture with new gas-fired generation could deliver power at $70-100/MWh, putting it within the same range as other options for 24-7 low-carbon electricity, according to Carbon Direct. Large data centers are expanding their search for electrical supply that is not subject to interconnection delays, and carbon capture is one option they’ve considered, said Colin McCormick, a principal scientist at Carbon Direct. Dive Insight: Large AI data centers, some of which can draw 1 GW of electricity or more, need reliable 24-7 electrical supply, and their operators don’t want to wait for interconnection and permitting delays, and they prefer to minimize their carbon emissions, McCormick said. That makes these operators a market force that could put carbon capture on the map, he said.  Following inquiries from clients looking to build new data centers, Carbon Direct crunched the numbers on the cost of behind-the-meter gas generation with carbon capture, McCormick said. The company’s clients were intrigued by the potential time to deployment — new gas generation can be brought online in less than 24 months in some cases, he said. They were less familiar with carbon capture and its limitations — and there will be some limitations, McCormick said, particularly around the storage and transportation of waste carbon in regions where the appropriate pipelines don’t exist, but the final numbers look promising. The 45Q tax credits created by the Inflation Reduction Act for carbon capture and sequestration bring the cost of integrating such systems into new gas plants down to reasonable levels, McCormick said, potentially bringing the cost of generation from a new plant with carbon capture

Dive Brief: Nuclear power’s long-term role in the U.S. electricity generation mix depends on still-unresolved questions about plant economics, technology selection, federal policy and financial support, fuel availability, waste disposal and public attitudes, analysts for strategic consultancy ICF said in a whitepaper released Thursday.  Despite interest from utilities and large electricity consumers that has led to multiple planned reactor restarts and several gigawatt-scale partnerships between nuclear companies and offtakers, the industry faces “significant challenges and limitations that will determine whether it will expand its role as a core technology underpinning the U.S. energy system,” the authors said. Despite higher revenue potential than most competing technologies, capital costs for new nuclear plants could range from $456/kW-year to $863/kW-year, significantly above those for wind, solar, gas combustion turbines and 4-hour battery energy storage systems, they said. Dive Insight: Since 2023, the owners of three recently retired nuclear power plants — the 800-MW Palisades plant in Michigan, 835-MW Crane Clean Energy Center in Pennsylvania and 601-MW Duane Arnold plant in Iowa — have announced plans to resume operations. The Pennsylvania restart is supported by a 20-year power purchase agreement between Microsoft and Constellation Energy. Meanwhile, “hyperscale” tech companies like Amazon, Meta and Google have inked tentative partnerships with advanced nuclear technology developers. Data center operator Switch and steelmaker Nucor have shown interest in advanced nuclear as well. In December, Switch and Oklo announced a 20-year, 12-GW nonbinding “master power agreement” through which the advanced nuclear company would develop, build and operate nuclear plants to power Switch facilities. “Should these new investments in nuclear energy come to pass, they could make a dent in the growing electricity demand. But a nuclear renaissance isn’t written in stone,” whitepaper authors Ian Bowen, Dino Vivanco, Vinay Gupta, George Katsigiannakis and Shanthi Muthiah said. Technology selection and design

Justin Mackovyak is vice president, utility program implementation at ICF International. The electric utility industry is facing a perfect storm. Billion-dollar weather events and unprecedented energy demand from AI and electrification are forcing utilities to rethink their strategies and seize opportunities. With this in mind, ICF surveyed 100 utility program leaders to explore their challenges with capacity, plans for electrification, and technology adoption. The takeaway is clear: programs must be retooled to fully support utilities’ missions of delivering clean, reliable and affordable energy. Customer programs: The challenges and opportunities Utility customer programs are facing a moment of great change and opportunity. They need to be more flexible and predictable in the face of rapid demand growth, electrification, aging infrastructure and new technology. Right now, utility leaders view grid modernization (57%), affordability (51%) and enhanced reliability (49%) as their top goals to achieve through customer programs. Nearly half of respondents (45%) view decarbonization as a top goal. Customer support is essential to meeting these goals, and these programs must be affordable to secure customer buy-in. Respondents agreed that customer programs must include financing options to effectively promote the adoption of reliable, clean energy. That makes affordability a priority for utility program leaders. However, 93% of them admit that current support falls short. There is more work to be done to prioritize affordability and make customer participation more accessible. Utilities recognize the opportunity to strengthen their outreach to ensure all communities benefit from their programs and contribute to broader energy goals. To bridge this gap, they must work to enhance communication with their customers by relying on responsiveness and human connection to build trust. Those qualities should be at the forefront of designed outreach around new programs and financing options. Meeting growing demand AI, data centers, electric vehicles, heat pumps and other

A lack of commitment from the UK government for a major UK-Morocco power project could jeopardise a planned Scottish cable factory, XLinks chairman Dave Lewis has warned. In comments to the Telegraph, he said that slow progress from authorities could push the £25 billion project overseas, potentially to Germany. “The people who have invested in this project want it to go ahead in the UK,” he said. “We think that’s by far and away the best use of this energy, but there comes a point where you go, ‘OK, we’re four years in. We’ve done everything that you asked us to do, but this process is taking an enormous amount of time.’” Xlinks is developing an ambitious project to produce renewable energy in Morocco and export it to the UK. This would see 11.5 GW of solar and wind capacity built in Morocco and then sent to the UK via 2,300 miles (3,800km) of subsea cables. © Supplied by XLCCRenderings of the future XLCC cable manufacturing site at Hunterston in Ayrshire. The XLinks project has lined up multiple backers including TotalEnergies, Octopus Energy, Abu Dhabi’s TAQA, GE Vernova and the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC). With £8bn of funding needed, Lewis said that “there are people lining up and down the street” to provide it, while recent tests to secure financing for the remaining £17bn were “significantly oversubscribed”. The company’s affiliate, XLCC, has partnered with HALO Kilmarnock as it looks to create the UK’s first high-voltage, direct current (HVDC) cable factory in Hunterston, Ayrshire The £1.4bn project won planning permission in 2022. Not only will it renovate the disused Peel Ports coal yard it has the potential to create 1,200 jobs, with 300 of these being in Kilmarnock. The facility is anchored by an order to supply Xlinks with the massive